Cheers to success

SanTan Brew Brewing Co. plans $700,000 expansion

You can't say Anthony Canecchia's tenure in downtown Chandler has been a Cinderella story. Considering his gender, it's more a Cinder-fella story.

So says Eileen Brill Wagner, executive director of the Downtown Chandler Community Partnership.

Regardless of the description, he's a success story. Canecchia arrived on the scene in September 2007, after he worked feverishly to get the blessing of county health inspectors to open SanTan Brewing Co., a microbrewery and restaurant.

His arrival created a buzz.

"We've arrived," Patti Bruno said at the time. She was then president of the partnership.

The brewpub would attract people who usually go to Tempe or Scottsdale for nightlife, she predicted. She was prescient. SanTan Brewing has become popular and lively.

Canecchia worked six or seven years as an assistant brewer at Four Peaks Brewery in Tempe, spent a little time out of state and then decided to open his own business in Chandler.

He opened with a lease in the former Valley National Bank at San Marcos Place and Commonwealth Avenue.

He expanded with an outdoor patio. He endured a worldwide hops shortage and worried about the ensuing high costs. But now, more growers have stabilized the hops market.

And Canecchia is undertaking a bigger, $700,000 expansion.

SanTan Brewing is expanding its brewing capacity and adding canning equipment to produce thirty 12-ounce cans a minute. He plans to sell beer statewide in bars, restaurants and retail stores.

Canecchia, who has five 15-barrel fermenters, is adding seven fermenters with a capacity of 30 barrels each.